Cybersecurity

Commerce Secretary Locke gave these remarks on June 16, 2011, at the Chamber of Commerce. He discussed the international challenges faced by the Internet Policy Task Force, which was launched to safeguard consumer privacy, improve cybersecurity, and protect intellectual property online.

Foreign governments, non-state actors, and criminal networks are targeting the digital networks of the United States with increasing frequency and sophistication. U.S. cybersecurity has made progress, but relies heavily on the private sector to secure infrastructure critical to national security.

Renewing America

The U.S. International Strategy for Cyberspace was released by the White House on May 16, 2011; it "outlines our vision for the future of cyberspace, and sets an agenda for partnering with other nations and peoples to realize it."

Renewing America

Adam Segal testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations about Chinese cyber espionage and China's desire to reduce its dependence on the West for advanced technologies.

"The deeper problem with the nothing-to-hide argument is that it myopically views privacy as a form of secrecy. In contrast, understanding privacy as a plurality of related issues demonstrates that the disclosure of bad things is just one among many difficulties caused by government security measures. To return to my discussion of literary metaphors, the problems are not just Orwellian but Kafkaesque. Government information-gathering programs are problematic even if no information that people want to hide is uncovered."

William Lynn III, Deputy Secretary of Defense at the U.S. Department of Defense and the author of "Defending New Domain: The Pentagon's New Cyberstrategy" discusses cybersecurity with Nicholas Thompson, Senior Editor of The New Yorker.

Cybersecurity expert Knake recommends the United States use international forums to promote mechanisms that address security concerns in cyberspace while ensuring the Internet remains open for the free exchange of ideas across national boundaries.

Robert K. Knake testifies before the House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology on the role of attack attribution in preventing cyber attacks and how attribution technologies can affect the anonymity and the privacy of Internet users.

Google's decision to end censorship of its search content in China, and Beijing's response, appear to strike a balance between holding to principles and doing business, but U.S.-China clouds continue to gather, writes CFR's Adam Segal.

This report argues that the lack of sustained attention to energy issues is undercutting U.S. foreign policy and national security.

CFR Experts Guide

The Council on Foreign Relations' David Rockefeller Studies Program—CFR's "think tank"—is home to more than seventy full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners (called "fellows"). Their expertise covers the world's major regions as well as the critical issues shaping today's global agenda. Download the printable CFR Experts Guide.

New Council Special Reports

Campbell evaluates the implications of the Boko Haram insurgency and recommends that the United States support Nigerian efforts to address the drivers of Boko Haram, such as poverty and corruption, and to foster stronger ties with Nigerian civil society.

Koblentz argues that the United States should work with other nuclear-armed states to manage threats to nuclear stability in the near term and establish processes for multilateral arms control efforts over the longer term.

The authors argue that it is essential to begin working now to expand and establish rules and norms governing armed drones, thereby creating standards of behavior that other countries will be more likely to follow.

2014 Annual Report

Learn more about CFR’s mission and its work over the past year in the 2014 Annual Report. The Annual Report spotlights new initiatives, high-profile events, and authoritative scholarship from CFR experts, and includes a message from CFR President Richard N. Haass.Read and download »